1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a latch system for a trunk lid of an automobile.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional latch system for a trunk lid of an automobile may be released, without using a key, by means of an operation of a trunk opener provided in the vicinity of a driver's seat so as to open the trunk lid. Therefore, if a passenger door is illegally opened when important documents and/or valuable articles are kept in an automotive trunk room, the documents or valuables may be easily stolen by opening the trunk lid using the opener.
In order to prevent the above disadvantage, there has been proposed a latch system for a trunk lid which includes a locking mechanism which is displaceable by means of a change-over operation of the automotive key between an unlocked state for enabling an opening operation of the trunk opener and a locked state for disabling the opening operation of the opener. This latch system has a disadvantage in which the locking mechanism is simultaneously released when the trunk lid is opened. That is, the operation for opening the trunk lid by the key changes the locking mechanism into the unlocked state. Therefore, if the locked state is desired when closing the trunk lid, an additional operation for returning the locking mechanism into the locked state should be necessary.
Further, in the case of lending an automobile to one's friend, there has been proposed another latch system for a trunk lid which includes a locking mechanism for preventing documents kept in the trunk room from being read by the friend. The locking mechanism is constructed in such a manner that a master key of the automobile is acceptable, and a sub-key is not acceptable. However, this latch system has the same problem as the aforesaid latch system.